Fans mourn the day the pirated music died

November 19, 2003 — 11.00am

University students cried in the court room. They linked arms, formed a big "group hug".

The crowd of more than 30 young people, clad in sneakers and jeans, are the prime target for music industry sales. But yesterday they flocked to Sydney's Downing Centre courts in a show of support for three students who that same industry wanted jailed - for internet music piracy.

As it turned out, Charles Kok Hau Ng, 20, and Peter Tran, 19, were each sentenced to 18 months' jail, but their sentences were suspended. In Australia's first criminal prosecution for online music piracy, Ng and Tran were the brains behind a music-swapping site, MPW3/WMA Land, which carried 390 CDs and more than 1800 tracks.

Advertisement

Deputy Chief Magistrate Graeme Henson accepted they did not profit from the site, even though the music industry had claimed their operation cost record labels $200 million. The Crown had put the figure at $60 million.

Mr Henson sentenced a third defendant, Tommy Le, 21 - also known as DJ Ace - to 200 hours community service. Le had provided four compilation albums to the website as a demonstration of his DJ prowess.

The three men are left with criminal convictions for their part in a crime that has become commonplace among young people around the world, and Ng and Tran say they fear for the damage to their future careers.

"It felt as if my life was being ripped to bits," said Peter Tran outside court, his mother at his side. "The music industry are big-time guys who should be going after bigger fish - we are little. [The record labels] need to be more aware of the demographic and how young users use music."

Ironically, the sentencing came on the same day as a survey revealing many music industry professionals are active music pirates and believe current copyright laws are unfair and should be changed.

Of 200 artists, managers and record company staff who anonymously responded to an Australian survey, over three-quarters owned CD burners and almost half used them to illegally burn copies of CDs they had purchased. Of the 45 per cent who download music, 50 per cent never pay for it.

However, Mr Henson said the breach of copyright deprived not only music artists and producers of income but "every level of the music industry" through to shop assistants. "It is trite to say that no one greatly suffers as a result of this type of behaviour or that everyone is doing it."

The magistrate said it was an "impossible task" to calculate the precise economic loss, although it was "significant". However, he said the young age of the offenders and "the lack of commercial gain" persuaded him the prison sentences should be suspended.

The general manager for Music Industry Piracy Investigations, Michael Speck, said: "It was clear the court understood how serious this crime was by initially sentencing these men to 18 months jail, but then it lost the opportunity to confirm that by letting them go.

"Clearly if you steal this much music from the store you go to jail. This won't discourage the music industry from pursuing major pirates like these guys."

Charles Ng, who sits a final year university exam today, said the trial had "put me off music".

However, Mr Tran said it was a "fair judgement and it should serve as a deterrent to all people". He wants a legal online song swapping service introduced to Australia.

The federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, said the case sent a very strong message to "those thinking about breaking the law".

The survey of music professionals was informally conducted by the organisers of the AustralAsian Music Business Conference in August, attended by about 600 industry participants.

The survey's organiser, Phil Tripp, said he would use it to lobby for changes to the Copyright Act to allow copying for private use.